Publisher's Description

+

From Nullsoft:
New features in Winamp 5.2 include headlining the numerous feature enhancements is the new portable media player plug-in, which lets you synchronize your local media with iPod, Creative, and Microsoft Plays For Sure devices. Take one step into the Media Library and you will find a number of enhancements--new menu item icons and a dynamic online services section which offers a new, engaging way to experience Winamp's free on-demand media. Version 5.2 also allows syncing to iPod and other mobile devices, adds aacPlus High Bitrate encoder, and enhanced Media Library.

Brings back nostalgic memories. I have tired VLC which i use primarily for music, now i have switched back to Winamp and the sound it throws is great. Has many skins and tools to configure, which is great.

None. It has become bloated, invasive, and a virus carrier. There are plenty of media players out there. AVOID.

Cons

In the main installer page, it sneakily says that it will change your default search engine to Yahoo, and install two other changes. If you see this (I did), you can uncheck that, and check the "custom install" box, which will allow you to UNCHECK those other install options. Okay, so far so good.

I jumped to the Task Manager and terminated the PC Cleaner process, and was able to actually find it in the Programs list and uninstall it. But I suspect that it is now malware lurking on my machine. So I'll have to start scanning and malwarebytes cleaning.

I loaded WinAmp itself exactly once after all this, and was greated by a loud audio "boom" and a freakin' COMMERCIAL for "WinAMP". C'mon guys, this is beyond bad taste. This thing used to be a lean, free, easy-to-use audio player

- Blazingly fast - built by an 18-year old genius in an era when performance still mattered
- Unique and intuitive design that make WMP and iTunes feel like the UX from Mars (honestly I don't know anyone who can navigate those other two)

Cons

Years ago when AOL bought WinAMP! they replaced the media library GUI with a bloated, slow, and unresponsive HTML GUI. Actually, any HTML GUI is bloated, slow, and unresponsive. If you want to kill a product that shines particularly for its performance and responsiveness, give it an HTML GUI. Before they did that WinAMP! had a super-fast and responsive filter-on-the-fly native media library GUI. The devs were "less than civil" about it when we protested the change.

Summary

WinAMP! is a glimmer of "the good 'ole days" when software had to be fast and lightweight in order to run. You typically only had a handful of MB to work with, and now a-days we have a million times more capacity to work with and we simply treat it like a crutch piling layer upon layer of lazy fat and sloppy code spending more time convincing the end users that this is normal than actually doing the right thing. WinAMP! is one of those few things still remaining today that helps me escape the garbage in modern software.

Can play FLAC and be customized a lot. For those of you who like libraries, this is a primary focus of Winamp, and it also has the ability to play CDs.

Cons

I never really liked Winamp, I find it to look too old overall and the library/playlists I don't like. I'd prefer to organize my files using Windows Explorer than within the player I use. But it is a matter of personal preferences. It is also awful for watching videos, which doesn't work half the time. The default skin could also be changed so... *shrugs* the catchphrase is also inappropriate for children.

Summary

It has had a comeback, but I still don't like it all that much. Depends who you are though.

Winamp has been around for a long time, and it used to be the only app I used for playing music on any of my computers. The free version used to include the audio converter.

Cons

The free version doesn't have the audio converter no more I see, and because of that I will not download the new version for any of my computers until they add the audio converter back to the free version, and I will give it five stars instead of three, because if I use a free player, I'l just use Itunes that come free with Mac. But for my microsoft computer I need an audio converter, and winamo was the first app I thought of until I found out the audio converter is not available no more. I guess you have to pay 20 dollars to have that feature. Thanks winamp, it doesn't kick a.. no more since the converters not available.

Summary

ADD the audio converter back to the free version. & I will come back and give 5 stars plus rewrite my review, p.e.a.c.e

It comes with conduit (and no option to not install conduit), which is malware that hijacks your browser. It's difficult to remove. It involved running Malware Bytes and then changing some settings manually, as well.

E-mail This Review

Thank You, !

Report Offensive Content

If you believe this comment is offensive or violates the CNET's Site Terms of Use, you can report it below (this will not automatically remove the comment). Once reported, our staff will be notified and the comment will be reviewed.